Naturalizing ethics

In this essay we provide (1) an argument for why ethics should be naturalized, (2) an analysis of why it is not yet naturalized, (3) a defense of ethical naturalism against two fallacies—Hume’s and Moore’s—that ethical naturalism allegedly commits, and (4) a proposal that normative ethics is best conceived as part of human ecology committed to pluralistic relativism. We explain why naturalizing ethics both entails relativism and also constrains it, and why nihilism about value is not an especially worrisome for ethical naturalists. The substantive view we put forth constitutes the essence of Duke Naturalism

Naturalizing ethics

In this essay we provide (1) an argument for why ethics should be naturalized, (2) an analysis of why it is not yet naturalized, (3) a defense of ethical naturalism against two fallacies—Hume’s and Moore’s—that ethical naturalism allegedly commits, and (4) a proposal that normative ethics is best conceived as part of human ecology committed to pluralistic relativism. We explain why naturalizing ethics both entails relativism and also constrains it, and why nihilism about value is not an especially worrisome for ethical naturalists. The substantive view we put forth constitutes the essence of Duke Naturalism. (NOTE: This is a slightly modified reprint of Flangan et al 2007 of the same title.

What is the nature of morality? A response to Casebeer, Railton and Ruse

A response to comments by William Casebeer, Peter Railton, and Michael Ruse on "Naturalizing Ethics" (2007)

Neuroexistentialism: Third-Wave Existentialism

Existentialism is a concern about the foundation of meaning, morals, and purpose. Existentialisms arise when some foundation for these elements of being is under assault. In the past, first-wave existentialism concerned the increasingly apparent inability of religion, and religious tradition, to provide such a foundation, as typified in the writings of Kierkegaard, Dostoevsky, and Nietzsche. Second-wave existentialism, personified philosophically by Sartre, Camus, and de Beauvoir, developed in response to the inability of an overly optimistic Enlightenment vision of reason and the common good to provide such a foundation. There is a third-wave existentialism, a new existentialism, developing in response to advances in the neurosciences that threaten the last vestiges of an immaterial soul or self. With the increasing explanatory and therapeutic power of neuroscience, the mind no longer stands apart from the world to serve as a foundation of meaning. This produces foundational anxiety. This collection of new essays explores the anxiety caused by this third-wave existentialism and some responses to it. It brings together some of the world’s leading philosophers, neuroscientists, cognitive scientists, and legal scholars to tackle our neuroexistentialist predicament and explore what the mind sciences can tell us about morality, love, emotion, autonomy, consciousness, selfhood, free will, moral responsibility, law, the nature of criminal punishment, meaning in life, and purpose

Neuroexistentialism, Eudaimonics, and Positive Illusions

There is a distinctive form of existential anxiety, neuroexistential anxiety, which derives from the way in which contemporary neuroscience provides copious amounts of evidence to underscore the Darwinian message—we are animals, nothing more. One response to this 21st century existentialism is to promote Eudaimonics, a version of ethical naturalism that is committed to promoting fruitful interaction between ethical inquiry and science, most notably psychology and neuroscience. We argue that philosophical reflection on human nature and social life reveals that while working to be and remain biologically fit, humans also seek meaning in a way that conforms to a pattern recognized by Plato. We argue that human beings should seek “the good,” “the true,” and “the beautiful”; moreover, the proper measure of human flourishing is the degree to which humans achieve these three, in a maximally harmonious way. One potential problem with this view, however, is that it might privilege the role of truth, such that if there is a conflict among these three, what is good or beautiful should yield to what is true. But this seems to conflict with evidence from neuroscience and psychology (e.g. the study of positive illusions) which suggests that people with a tendency to form and harbor certain false beliefs tend to more easily achieve eudaimonia than do those for whom truth takes precedence in all domains. We argue that this conflict is only apparent: the false beliefs in question are not literally beliefs; instead, they are an amalgam of belief and desire, an amalgam that we dub, tertullian beliefs (or, t-beliefs). Among other things, what is distinctive about t-beliefs is that they are able to change the world, in certain specific ways, such that, strictly speaking, it would be erroneous to say of them that they aim away from the truth. Paradoxically, it is because they seem to aim away from the truth, that they are sometimes able to succeed in changing the world so that it matches what we desire, or, what we t-believe

Spatial prioritisation of conservation areas on the fringes of KwaZulu-Natal protected areas : application of the characteristics framework using tourism competitiveness.

M. Sc. Agric. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg 2014.Prioritisation of conservation areas has become a major area of study over the last few decades as a result of greatly increased rates of biodiversity loss and extinction with the rapidly expanding human population and development. These extinctions are most commonly associated with habitat loss, the prevention of which is part of the mandate of Ezemvelo KwaZulu-Natal Wildlife (EKZNW). Prioritisation has historically been aimed at areas of predominantly biological importance. Currently, EKZNW faces requests from the South African government to provide jobs, develop communities, and conserve biodiversity. This study proposes that right from the outset of the identification of potential conservation areas in KZN, the tourism potential should be a factor considered by decision makers in prioritisation. In order to present such a case, the dissertation considers the role of competitive advantage within tourism. Multiple linear regression is used to quantify the competitive advantage gained by KZN nature-based tourism destinations by virtue of macro environmental and locational factors. The results of the analyses of competitiveness are used to predict the relative advantage of a number of potential conservation sites currently being considered by EKZNW staff. The thesis is the first, to the author’s knowledge, to consider the prioritisation of conservation areas using tourism competitive advantage at a macro-level as a tool for decision making. This tool could save costs of in-depth tourism feasibility studies at destinations that could potentially be shown to have low potential competitive advantage. Funds could then rather be focused on further feasibility studies at destinations already shown to have some form of competitive advantage. The study analyses secondary financial data, collected from a variety of EKZNW protected areas with different accommodation types. The sources of primary data on the marketed attributes of the destinations are pamphlets and EKZNW internet sites. Panel data are analysed using Tobit regression to identify the effects of changes in attributes of destinations on competitiveness. Three variables identified in the literature are used as proxies for competitiveness: price, occupancy percentage and revenue per available room. The Tobit analyses are supported by estimations using Generalised Least Squares (GLS) regression and the results were found to be relatively robust to changes in estimation techniques. Marginal effects from the Tobit regression analyses are used to rank the relative competitiveness and order priority of conservation for a number of potential sites under consideration by EKZNW. With regard to prioritisation, the Tobit models estimated that the most influential macro-environmental factors influencing the competitive advantage of destinations are: Their location beside the ocean, The presence of the Big Five (lion, leopard, elephant, rhino and buffalo), The size of the destination protected area, and The distance from Johannesburg. With regard to competitiveness, important management or destination factors affecting the competitiveness of destinations were: Star rating (i.e. Quality of resort), (star-rated destinations had increased competitiveness), Provision of breakfast within accommodation fee, (competitiveness was lower at destinations that included breakfast in accommodation fees), Facilities inside the accommodation for self-catering, (such facilities are preferred), and Pricing strategies that reflect the relative demand. The thesis results suggest that it is vital to consider the competitive advantage of a site when assessing the site for conservation. A number of the recommendations can be drawn from the study regarding the marketing and management of current EKZNW tourism destinations: the incomes and annual Rand turn-over of these sites could be significantly improved by focussing on the variety of potential tourists and targeting specific niche markets, such as birders and visitors interested in historic or cultural sites. An important future focus for EKZNW could be to set competitive pricing relative to the experience offered in order to improve their overall performance. This is especially necessary when there are large discrepancies between the value placed on an attribute by EKZNW (e.g. high prices for birding) and the behaviour displayed by tourists using that attribute (e.g. low occupancy levels in birding destinations)

Intestinal stem cell dynamics: a story of mice and humans

Stem cell dynamics define the probability of accumulating mutations within the intestinal epithelium. In this issue of Cell Stem Cell, Nicholson et al. (2018) report that human intestinal stem cell dynamics differ significantly from those of mice and establish that oncogenic mutations are more likely to expand; therefore, "normal" epithelium may carry multiple mutations

An Effective Search Method for Gravitational Ringing of Black Holes

We develop a search method for gravitational ringing of black holes. The gravitational ringing is due to complex frequency modes called the quasi-normal modes that are excited when a black hole geometry is perturbed. The detection of it will be a direct confirmation of the existence of a black hole. Assuming that the ringdown waves are dominated by the fundamental mode with least imaginary part, we consider matched filtering and develop an optimal method to search for the ringdown waves that have damped sinusoidal wave forms. When we use the matched filtering method, the data analysis with a lot of templates required. Here we have to ensure a proper match between the filter as a template and the real wave. It is necessary to keep the detection efficiency as high as possible under limited computational costs. First, we consider the white noise case for which the matched filtering can be studied analytically. We construct an efficient method for tiling the template space. Then, using a fitting curve of the TAMA300 DT6 noise spectrum, we numerically consider the case of colored noise. We find our tiling method developed for the white noise case is still valid even if the noise is colored.Comment: 17 pages, 9 figures. Accepted to Phys. Rev. D, Note correction to Eq. (3-25), A few comments added and minor typos correcte

Gravitational waves from eccentric compact binaries: Reduction in signal-to-noise ratio due to nonoptimal signal processing

Inspiraling compact binaries have been identified as one of the most promising sources of gravitational waves for interferometric detectors. Most of these binaries are expected to have circularized by the time their gravitational waves enter the instrument's frequency band. However, the possibility that some of the binaries might still possess a significant eccentricity is not excluded. We imagine a situation in which eccentric signals are received by the detector but not explicitly searched for in the data analysis, which uses exclusively circular waveforms as matched filters. We ascertain the likelihood that these filters, though not optimal, will nevertheless be successful at capturing the eccentric signals. We do this by computing the loss in signal-to-noise ratio incurred when searching for eccentric signals with those nonoptimal filters. We show that for a binary system of a given total mass, this loss increases with increasing eccentricity. We show also that for a given eccentricity, the loss decreases as the total mass is increased.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figures, ReVTeX; minor changes made after referee's comment

Prospects of observing continuous gravitational waves from known pulsars

Several past searches for gravitational waves from a selection of known pulsars have been performed with data from the science runs of the Laser Inferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) gravitational wave detectors. So far these have lead to no detection, but upper limits on the gravitational wave amplitudes have been set. Here we study our intrinsic ability to detect, and estimate the gravitational wave amplitude for non-accreting pulsars. Using spin-down limits on emission as a guide we examine amplitudes that would be required to observe known pulsars with future detectors (Advanced LIGO, Advanced Virgo and the Einstein Telescope), assuming that they are triaxial stars emitting at precisely twice the known rotation frequency. Maximum allowed amplitudes depend on the stars' equation of state (e.g. a normal neutron star, a quark star, a hybrid star) and the theoretical mass quadrupoles that they can sustain. We study what range of quadrupoles, and therefore equations of state, would be consistent with being able to detect these sources. For globular cluster pulsars, with spin-downs masked by accelerations within the cluster, we examine what spin-down values gravitational wave observations would be able to set. For all pulsars we also alternatively examine what internal magnetic fields they would need to sustain observable ellipticities.Comment: version to be published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Societ